The Word Before Work

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. (Deuteronomy 8:17-18)You’ll likely see the fruit of today’s work fairly quickly. You’ll sit down at your laptop, and an hour later you’ll have a finished PowerPoint and be ready for your meeting. Or you’ll scrub in for surgery, and a few hours later your patient will be sewn up as good as new. At a minimum, you’ll go to work today, and within a couple of weeks, money will appear in your bank account as a recognition of your hard work.With such a seemingly direct connection between our work and the results of our work, it can be easy to believe that it is our intellect, skill, and “hustle,” that is producing these results. But as today’s passage reveals, ultimately it is God alone who produces fruit in our endeavors. David echoed this truth in 1 Chronicles 29:12 when he prayed, “Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.”But it’s not just wealth that comes from the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 3:5, Paul says that even “our competence comes from God,” and in Romans 11:36 he asserts that “from [God] and through him…are all things.” Paul is saying that it’s not just what we see God creating in Genesis 1 that is from him. “All things,” including the results you and I produce at work today, are from the Lord.Thus, we can join with the Psalmist in saying that “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7). Because all things are “from him and through him,” we don’t ultimately trust in chariots or horses, P&L statements or software, intellect or hustle. “We trust in the name of the Lord” because he alone is able to produce fruit through our work.But this doesn’t negate the need for us to be faithful to work hard with the skills and opportunities God has given us to steward. As we’ll see next week, it is often our hustle that God uses as a primary means of producing fruitful results in our work.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)I was recently reading Gospelbound by the editors of The Gospel Coalition when I came across these words from John Piper: “My job is faithfulness. God’s is fruitfulness.”I can’t tell you how many times I have shared that quote in the past couple of months. It so beautifully encapsulates an idea I have written about many times before—namely that Christ-followers ought to have a unique relationship with the word “hustle.”Let me explain.The rise of the increasingly dominant “hustle culture” has been well documented for years now. The idea is that if you want things to happen in your career, you have to hustle and make them happen!As we’ll see throughout this series, there are tons of passages of Scripture that command us to work hard—to hustle if you will. This is a point of commonality we can celebrate with our hustle-loving friends, Christian or not. But here’s where Christ-followers ought to diverge significantly from the hustle culture masses. While we embrace the biblical command to work hard, we simultaneously recognize that it is God alone who produces results in our work. As Paul says in today’s passage, we can “plant” and “water” all we want, but at the end of the day it is “only God who makes things grow.”The fourth chapter of Nehemiah offers us a concrete picture of what this looks like. Nehemiah’s opponents were gearing up for an attack to stop God’s people from rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls. What did Nehemiah and company do in response? Nehemiah says, “We prayed to our God AND posted a guard day and night to meet this threat” (Nehemiah 4:9). In other words, they trusted in God and hustled to work to protect themselves.As Christians, we have a unique responsibility to embrace the tension between trusting in God to produce fruit through our work and faithfully hustling in accordance with his commands. How do we embrace that tension well? That’s the question we’ll explore over the next few weeks.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)Over the past three weeks, we have been dissecting J.R.R. Tolkien’s short story, Leaf by Niggle, and unpacking how this remarkable parable gives us an eternal perspective for our work.But how can we maintain the perspective we have gained over the past few weeks? How do we “renew our minds” as Paul commands in Romans 12:2? Through study of the Word and fellowship with other believers.Immediately after Paul commands his readers to renew their minds, he writes a long exposition on the value of the Body of Christ (see Romans 12:3-8). Why? Because Paul knew that community is essential to renewing our minds with eternal truths. To his credit, J.R.R. Tolkien knew this too. Throughout much of his career, Tolkien met on a near-weekly basis with a group of Christian friends famously known as “the Inklings.” The group included some of the world’s greatest minds, including Charles Williams, Hugo Dyson, Owen Barfield, and most notably, C.S. Lewis. Nearly every Tuesday throughout the 1930s and 40s, you could find these friends gathered in the back corner of an Oxford pub where they would drink a pint of beer and provide feedback on each others’ work.We know that at one of these gatherings, Tolkien brought up the topic of his neighbor’s “lopped and mutilated” tree and his fear that he would die before finishing his own “internal Tree”—his life’s work, The Lord of the Rings. Shortly after that meeting, Tolkien penned Leaf by Niggle. Was it the Inklings who inspired him to write the parable? We don’t know for sure. But we do know that time and time again, this group of Christian friends (especially Lewis, who is credited as the “chief midwife” to The Lord of the Rings) renewed Tolkien’s mind and encouraged him to persevere in his work.Without regular communion with other believers to refresh their eternal perspectives, Tolkien may have never completed The Lord of the Rings, and Lewis may have never finished The Chronicles of Narnia. As we work and create in this world, it takes regular communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ to renew our minds of the truths we’ve explored in this series and continually “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18).Still looking for your own group of Inklings? If you’re an entrepreneur, writer, or culture-maker of any kind, consider joining my Community for Redemptive Entrepreneurs for free today.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind….[My people] will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. (Isaiah 65:17, 21-22)We’re in a four-week series exploring the biblical truths illustrated in J.R.R. Tolkien’s remarkable parable, Leaf by Niggle. Niggle was an artist who spent years developing a massive painting of a tree. Sadly, Niggle died only having finished a single leaf. But when Niggle arrives in the heavenly afterlife, he finds his tree finished and even better than he imagined!Last week, we saw how this story illustrates the biblical hope that there are eternal rewards tied to how we work in this life (see Colossians 3:23-24). Here’s what I want us to see today: That even though we have hope that our work matters for eternity, it is only proper to mourn over unfinished and unfulfilling work today.This is what we see Niggle doing in Tolkien’s short story. When death is on Niggle’s doorstep, he works frantically to finish his masterpiece, but eventually, he resigns himself to the inevitable: “‘Oh dear!’ said poor Niggle, beginning to weep. ‘And it’s not even finished!’”Niggle feared what many of us do—that we will never close the gap between what we can envision accomplishing in this life and what we actually will. We will all die with “unfinished symphonies.”But maybe you’re not mourning over work you won’t be able to finish. Perhaps you’re mourning over work you have yet to begin. You feel as if you have yet to find the work that best matches your gifts and passions and you’re “stuck” in what feels like a “dead-end job.”It’s only natural to lament over these things, for unfinished and unfulfilling work were not a part of God’s original design for work (see Genesis 1-3). But sin has ensured that work today is difficult and we will all die with unfulfilled dreams for our work, just like Niggle.These are things we should mourn over. But just as we “do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope” in death (see 1 Thessalonians 4:13), we also do not mourn over our work in the same way as the rest of the world. Why? Because there is coming a day when we will work free from the curse of sin! Today’s passage makes this clear. Isaiah is sharing a prophetic vision of the New Earth where God will dwell with us forever (see also Revelation 21:1-5). But Isaiah’s picture of eternity isn’t of disembodied souls floating around and playing harps all day. Isaiah says we will work for eternity! We will “build houses,” “plant vineyards,” and “not labor in vain.” And because there will be no sin, there will be no unfinished symphonies or unfulfilling work. We will have all the time we need to paint our masterpieces, finish our novels, plant our vineyards, and “long enjoy the work of [our] hands.”How do we maintain this perspective in the day-to-day grind of earthly work? That’s the question we’ll answer next week.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23-24)Last week, I recounted the depressing first half of Leaf by Niggle, the short autobiographical parable written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Niggle was an artist who spent many years working on a painting of an enormous tree. But tragically, Niggle died only having completed a single leaf which was soon forgotten, along with Niggle himself. Here’s the second half of the story: After his death, Niggle was sent to the afterlife where we find him riding a bicycle through a heavenly countryside. Suddenly, something caught Niggle’s eye that was so extraordinary, he simply fell off his bicycle. Tolkien writes: “Before [Niggle] stood the Tree, his Tree, finished…‘It’s a gift!’ he said….He went on looking at the Tree. All the leaves he had ever laboured at were there, as he had imagined them rather than as he had made them; and there were others that had only budded in his mind, and many that might have budded, if only he had had time.”Beautiful, isn’t it?We saw last week that if this life is all there is, then Solomon was right: All of our work is “meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:17).But we know that, through Christ, this life is not all there is, and thus we have hope. In this beautiful short story, Tolkien is illustrating what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15—that because of Christ’s resurrection and the promise of eternal life, you can “know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Somehow, our work matters for eternity.How? There are many answers to that question, most of which I have explored in past devotionals. But today, I want to focus on one promise that is beautifully illustrated by the “gift” of Niggle’s finished tree. Scripture makes clear that while salvation is by faith alone (see Ephesians 2:8-9), there are eternal rewards tied to how we work in this life (see Colossians 3:23-24). Scripture also makes clear that the New Earth will be filled with works of culture (see Isaiah 60 and Revelation 21:26). With these truths in mind, is it possible that the picture Tolkien is painting in his short story could be true? That one of our eternal rewards could be God graciously finishing and perfecting the work we leave unfinished in this life?I don’t think that’s far-fetched at all. We worship a God who works—a God who takes joy in creating with his hands (see Genesis 1-2). A God who loves giving good gifts to his children (see Matthew 7:11). I pray Tolkien was onto something. Because if he was, we have even more reason to “work heartily, as for the Lord” today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.” (Ecclesiastes 2:17-18)J.R.R. Tolkien had a serious thing for trees. So when a neighbor cut down one of his favorite trees in 1943, Tolkien was furious. But his anger was about much more than the loss of the towering evergreen. Tolkien saw the “lopped and mutilated” tree as a metaphorical preview for what he feared for his “internal Tree”—his life’s work, The Lord of the Rings.By this time, Tolkien had spent more than a decade toiling away at his magnum opus, but he was still a long way from completing it. World War II was in full swing in Tolkien’s home of Great Britain, and while the fifty-one-year-old was at no risk of being drafted into service, his experience as an officer in the First World War led to the sober realization that even as a citizen, his life and his life’s work might soon suffer the same fate as his neighbor’s tree. As his biographer explains, Tolkien was “fearful that in the end he would achieve nothing,” which was, of course, “a dreadful and numbing thought.”After sharing these fears with Christian friends such as C.S. Lewis, Tolkien was inspired to sit down and write a short story—an autobiographical parable titled Leaf by Niggle. Niggle was a painter—an artist like Tolkien himself—who had a massive vision for the work he would accomplish in his lifetime. One day, Niggle caught a vision for a painting of a leaf. Over time, that vision expanded to a painting of an entire tree, and then beyond that tree, a beautiful countryside with forests and snow-capped mountains. For years, Niggle worked diligently on his painting, but he never felt like he was accomplishing much. One night, Niggle came down with a fever. Knowing that the end of his life was near, he worked frantically to finish his masterpiece, but it was too little too late. As death closed in, Niggle burst into tears, realizing his life’s work would go unfinished.After Niggle’s death, his neighbors were searching through his home when they discovered the enormous canvas Niggle had erected for his magnum opus. But after years of work, Niggle had only finished “one beautiful leaf.” The neighbors had the small painting framed and placed in a local museum, “and for a long while ‘Leaf: by Niggle’ hung there in a recess, and was noticed by a few eyes. But eventually the Museum was burnt down, and the leaf, and Niggle, were entirely forgotten in his old country.”Depressing story, huh?Here’s the thing: We are all Niggle. We all envision more for our work than we’ll ever be able to accomplish in a lifetime, and we fear that the little we do accomplish will “burn up” in the end—just like Niggle’s painting. This is what led Solomon to say that all of his work was “meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”If this life is all there is, then Solomon was right. Our work is in vain. But you and I know something Solomon couldn’t—that through Christ, death would be defeated, ensuring that this life is not all there is. Death is not the end of our stories or the stories of our work. J.R.R. Tolkien knew that which is why his story of Niggle doesn’t end where we left off today. How does Niggle’s story end? I’ll share next week!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (1 Corinthians 15:12-14)Bodily resurrection was a big deal to Paul. So big that Paul dedicated the longest section in his letter to the Corinthians to this topic. Why does physical resurrection matter so much? Because without it, Paul says our faith is “useless.” And I would argue our work is as well.Unfortunately, the false teaching Paul was combatting here is still alive and well. Today it appears in our caricatures of heaven as a glorified retirement home where disembodied souls float around doing nothing but relaxing and singing for all eternity. That false vision is a distortion of what theologians like Randy Alcorn call “the intermediate Heaven…where we go when we die…until our bodily resurrection.” “Until” is the keyword there. The intermediate or “present heaven” is just a stop along the way to our final destination—the new earth—where God will dwell with us in our physical resurrected bodies.What does the promise of bodily resurrection mean for our work? At least two things.First, we can look forward to using our resurrected bodies to work without the curse for eternity! The Lord revealed this clearly to Isaiah when he said, “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth….[My people] will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit….They will not labor in vain” (Isaiah 65:17a, 21, 23a). Floating souls don’t “build houses” and “plant vineyards.” People with physical bodies do! And that’s precisely what this passage says we will do forever—work where there will “no longer be…any curse” (Revelation 22:3).If you love your work today, this promise should be thrilling to you—far more thrilling than the idea of playing harps for millennia on end. And if you loathe your work today, this promise should be thrilling as well, as you can look hopefully to the day in which your work will be perfect, blissful worship.Second, if we believe that human bodies can be resurrected from the dead, surely we can believe that our physical work can carry on on the new earth. In Revelation 21:5, Jesus says, “Behold, I am making all things new”—not just our physical bodies. Could it be that “all things” includes the novel you’re writing, the table you’re building, or the road you’re paving? Maybe! Scripture certainly offers hints to that end. Revelation 21:24-26 says that “the glory and honor of the nations will be brought into” the new earth. A parallel passage in Isaiah 60 lists some of the honor or “riches” of the nations as “the ships of Tarshish,” “herds of camels,” and “gold and incense”—all artifacts of human culture.The work you will do today healing people, serving cups of coffee, or designing a new building matters because the material world matters to God. “Therefore,” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)In reading Paul’s letters, one thing about the Apostle jumps off the page to me: Paul worked incredibly hard. You can see this in today’s verse as well as 1 Corinthians 4:12, 2 Corinthians 6:5, Colossians 1:28-29, and 2 Thessalonians 3:8.Why did Paul work so hard? Because as Paul makes clear in today’s passage, hard work is part of a believer’s reasonable response to the gospel. “[God’s] grace to me was not without effect,” Paul said. And so, he “worked harder than” all the other apostles.Just like Paul, part of our response to the gospel is to work diligently on behalf of our Savior’s agenda. That’s why Paul commands us in Colossians 3:23 to follow his example and “work heartily as for the Lord.”In Ephesians 2:10, Paul goes even further, suggesting that the very reason why we were saved was to work hard on behalf of our King! Paul writes that “we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand.”Now, I hear what you’re thinking: Jordan, when Paul says “good works” he was talking about giving money to the poor, not writing an elegant line of code, right? Wrong. Of course “good works” implies charitable and evangelical things, but the meaning of ergon (the Greek word for “good works”) is much broader. One commentary says it means “work, task, [and] employment.”Paul couldn’t be any clearer: God didn’t save us so that we would sit back and wait around for eternity. God saved your life so you would spend it for his glory and the advancement of the gospel.Now, we need to make one thing clear. We do not work hard because we need to. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “it is by grace you have been saved…not by works.” No amount of hard work will make us any more or less loved by our Father. But ironically, it is that security that leads us to want to work hard, not to earn our salvation, but in response to it. Tim Keller offers a beautiful picture of this. He writes: “Imagine a father watching his beloved son play baseball for the team his father coaches. As he sits in the dugout, he loves his son fully and completely. If his son forgets his father’s instructions and strikes out, it will not change his love for him or approval of him one bit. The son is assured of his father’s love regardless of his performance. But the son will long to hit that home run. Not for himself—to gain his father’s love—but for his father, because he is already loved.”Believer: You can never lose the love of your heavenly Father. May that security motivate you to work hard today for his glory and the good of others!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)This morning’s short passage offers two startling truths.First, while it’s natural to say that we are drafting an email, delivering a presentation, or waiting tables, it is actually God who is working through us. “In all of [us]…it is the same God at work” (verse 6). Second, because it is God who works through us, all work has dignity and meaning. This can be easy to forget in our culture which looks to work as the primary card in our never-ending game of one-upmanship.A comical example of this is found in the movie Meet the Parents. Pam is introducing her fiance Greg to her family. First, she introduces Dr. Bob, followed by “the world-famous plastic surgeon, Dr. Larry.” Someone mentions that Greg is also in medicine. Amused, Dr. Larry asks Greg which field he’s in. When Greg replies, “Nursing,” the room explodes in laughter. “That’s good. No really, what field?” Dr. Larry insists. “Nursing,” Greg replies. Realizing he’s serious, the room falls into an awkward silence as the obvious disdain for the “lesser” profession has been laid bare.Because God works through us, all work—from doctors to nurses to hospital custodians—has dignity and worth. We don’t just see this in 1 Corinthians. As Tim Keller points out, “…in Genesis we see God as a gardener, and in the New Testament we see him as a carpenter. No task is too small a vessel to hold the immense dignity of work given by God.” Furthermore, in Genesis 2, we see God instructing Adam to do the “manual labor” of gardening (verse 15) and the “knowledge work” of naming animals (verse 19).Now I hear what you’re thinking: Jordan, I get this. I believe in the dignity of all work. While we might know these truths intellectually, the cultural forces that fight against these truths are incredibly strong, which is why we need these reminders.I use the word “we” intentionally here, as I need to be reminded of these truths myself. I can’t tell you how many times my kids have said they wanted to be garbage women or cashiers and I have tried to steer their imaginations to being astronauts or entrepreneurs. Oh, how kids reveal the sin and idols of our hearts!My point isn’t that we and our kids shouldn’t explore the best, most unique opportunities we have to serve God and the world. My point is that deep inside many of our hearts there is an unspoken stigma against some types of work. The biblical truths we’ve explored today cut right through that stigma. All work has dignity and can be used by God to accomplish his purposes in the world!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast….To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:14-15, 22-23)While the Apostle Paul’s work as a church planter is well-known, it’s easy to forget that he also chose to work as a tentmaker (see Acts 18:2-3).Today’s passage makes this clear. Paul says he had every “right” to work as what we might call a “donor-supported missionary.” But he didn’t. Why? Paul chose to work as a tentmaker in order to “become all things to all people so that by all possible means [he] might save some.” He did it “for the sake of the gospel.”Paul understood that those of us who work outside of the four walls of the church are uniquely positioned to spread the gospel, because the workplace is where many of us spend the most time with non-believers!For Paul, tentmaking would have been the perfect opportunity to build relationships with those outside the church. As Dr. Mark Russell points out, “[Paul’s] work as a tentmaker was a deliberate strategy that enabled him to identify with another, primarily different, group of people. By participating in [tentmaking] trade associations and guilds he would have become enmeshed in [previously inaccessible] social networks.” Paul’s work as a tentmaker wasn’t out of necessity or coincidence. It was a strategic choice to make disciples. The same can be true for you and me.Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a marketer, a nurse, a plumber, or a teacher, you have unique opportunities to make disciples with those you’re surrounded by at work. By serving your bosses, employees, co-workers, and customers through the ministry of excellence, you will “win the respect of outsiders” and earn the right for the gospel to be heard (see 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). So go and serve with excellence today and pray that the Lord would open clear opportunities to share the gospel not just with your work, but also with your words.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:8-15)Today’s passage is one of the richest on the topic of work in all of Scripture. We could spend weeks unpacking these eight verses, but this morning, I just want to focus our attention on three things.First, ”the quality of each person’s work” will one day be tested by God. Work matters greatly to God as it is a means of glorifying him and serving others. Thus, we ought to strive to do our work exceptionally well and in accordance with his commands.Second, this passage makes clear that there are varying rewards tied to how we work in this life. Verse 8 says this plainly: “each be rewarded according to their own labor.” Which work will be rewarded? The work that “survives” the “fire” of God’s judgment. Paul lists six building materials in this passage: three that would survive a “fire” (gold, silver, and costly stones) and three that would not (wood, hay, and straw). The question then becomes, what sort of work is considered “gold, silver, [and] costly stones?” The quality work we do in accordance with the commands of our “foundation…which is Jesus Christ.” In the words of New Testament scholar N.T. Wright, “What we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted.”But, while Paul makes clear that we will all receive varying rewards based on how we work today, he is also careful to ensure we don’t turn this into a false gospel, which brings me to the final thing I want us to see this morning: Regardless of whether or not our work will “burn up” or be rewarded, “the builder…will be saved.” One day, God will test our work and reward us accordingly. But as those trusting in Jesus Christ for the atonement of our sins, our souls have already been judged and our entrance into God’s eternal kingdom is irrevocably secure. While rewards will vary, our statuses as co-heirs with Christ are equal.May that ultimate security lead us to be ambitious for doing excellent, God-glorifying work today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)Have you ever felt less than “influential” at work? Or felt like you were “lowly” or lacked the right “noble” family or pedigree for your career? Have you ever lacked the wisdom you need to do the work God has called you to do? All of us have. So what are we supposed to do with the feelings of inadequacy Paul describes in today’s passage?The burgeoning “self-help” industry’s answer to that question is to replace negative “self-talk” with “positive affirmations.” Is someone making you feel “lowly”? Forget about what they say. What matters is how you view yourself. Feeling like you don’t have what it takes to tackle the problem in front of you? Look in the mirror and tell yourself you can do it and that you are “enough.” In short, the world’s response to feeling inadequate is to inflate your self-esteem with pride. Paul’s response couldn’t be more different. In today’s passage, Paul is calling us to embrace our inadequacies so that God might be glorified in our weakness. In verse 27, Paul says that God works through the “weak things” of the world—that’s us!—”so that no one may boast before” God or man.God used ninety-year-old Sarah to give birth to a nation (see Genesis 17:17). God used ineloquent Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt (see Exodus 4:10). And he used lowly fishermen and tax collectors to help proclaim the gospel of the kingdom (see Matthew 4:18-22).Believer, you don’t need to convince yourself that you are capable of doing the work God has called you to do today. The point is that you’re not! And that means that God alone deserves the glory for whatever you accomplish.Paul David Tripp said it best: “God calls unable people to do important things because ultimately what he’s working on is not your immediate success, but that you would come to know him, to love him, to rest in his grace, and to live for his glory.”Amen. Boast in your weakness this morning so that God alone may be glorified through your work!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you….Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip….Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord. All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar, and I will adorn my glorious temple. Who are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their nests? Surely the islands look to me; in the lead are the ships of Tarshish, bringing your children from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honor of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor. Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion. Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations—their kings led in triumphal procession. (Isaiah 60:1, 4, 6-11)Today concludes our four-week series exploring what Easter means for our work today. Over the past three weeks, we’ve seen how Easter gives us an identity, a King, and a mission. Today we’ll see how Easter points to an incredible incentive to do our work “as unto the Lord” (see Colossians 3:23).But before we look at what that incentive is, we need to pause and appreciate something that is easy to overlook in the Easter narrative—namely that there is a continuation from the present world to the future one. Scripture makes clear that Jesus’s physical body was raised from the dead. This wasn’t an entirely new body. It was a redeemed, perfect version of Jesus’s physical body pre-death. Thus, the hope we have as Christ-followers isn’t for some disembodied existence in the clouds after we die. Our ultimate hope is, like Jesus, the resurrection and restoration of our physical selves.What does this have to do with our work? The promise that our physical bodies will continue on from this life to the next makes it easier for us to grasp how our physical work might do the same. This is what Isaiah is alluding to in today’s passage in his prophetic vision of the Kingdom of God. All the nations are coming into the New Jerusalem, but they are not coming empty-handed. They are bringing their very best work from the previous life. The people of Tarshish bring their ships (v. 9), Midian and Ephah bring their livestock (v. 6), and Sheba brings gold and frankincense (v. 6). Isaiah calls these cultural goods the “wealth of the nations.” John, in a strikingly similar vision in Revelation 21, calls these artifacts “the glory and honor of the nations.”Isaiah and John are showing us how some of our work might physically cross over into the New Jerusalem, used by King Jesus to build and adorn His eternal Kingdom.What sort of work will carry on? Scripture doesn’t say definitively, but I think it’s safe to assume it will be work that is created in line with the principles of King Jesus to whom we owe our allegiance.You and I shouldn’t need an incentive to work with excellence. As we saw a few weeks ago, we should work with excellence as a loving response of worship to the King who redeemed us. But God in His great graciousness does give us incentive—an incentive that our work will be deemed by God to be among “the glory of the nations.” Work to that end today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:6-11)We’re in a four-week series exploring what Easter means for our work. Two weeks ago, we saw how Easter gives us an identity work can never provide. Last week, we saw how Easter gives us a King worthy of our allegiance. This morning, we see that King Jesus gives us a mission to carry out.As I mentioned last week, Easter can be thought of as a sort of Inauguration Day, ushering in the Kingdom of God in which Jesus is King. As we know from our modern experience, Inauguration Day is the moment in which power is transferred from one regime to another. But here’s the thing: An inauguration is powerless unless the leader’s followers share the news of the transfer of power.Easter declared that Jesus—not Caesar or any other earthly authority—is the ultimate, rightful King. But somebody had to share that good news—what Jesus called the “gospel of the Kingdom” (see Matthew 24:14).That’s the mission Jesus gave to Mary at the tomb (see John 20:17). And as today’s passage shows, it’s also the mission Jesus gave to us: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). King Jesus has given us a mission to be His ambassadors throughout the world, declaring His lordship over every square inch of creation, including our places of work. We are called to reveal Jesus’s kingship and to use our work to bring us one step closer to His Kingdom being “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).What does that look like practically? It looks like medical professionals developing vaccines for deadly viruses, because in the Kingdom “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (see Revelation 21:4). It looks like artists creating beautiful things, because the Kingdom is filled with beauty (see Revelation 21:2). It looks like leaders being “persecuted because of righteousness” and doing the right thing, because “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (see Matthew 5:10). It looks like all of us heralding the good news of the gospel so that our co-workers might come to know Jesus the King (see Matthew 28:16-20).Easter made clear that Jesus is King and He has given us a mission to be ambassadors announcing His reign. Let us all work to reveal His Kingdom today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’s body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). (John 20:11-16)Last week, we saw how Easter gives us an identity for our work. This week, we look at how Easter gives us a King to direct our work.Reading through the gospels, it appears that Jesus’s favorite topic wasn’t money, sin, or even individual salvation. What He spoke of more than anything was the “Kingdom of God.” And on that first Easter Sunday, Jesus proved emphatically that He is the prophesied King of that Kingdom.Viewed through that lens, Easter can be seen as a sort of Inauguration Day for Jesus. As we know from our modern experience, the inauguration of new leaders is a big deal. Every detail of an inauguration ceremony is chosen with great care, from the speakers to the songs and even the parade route. And of course, the detail that matters most is how the new leader appears physically as they address their new subjects. It’s why the fictional president-elect in my all-time favorite show The West Wing refused to wear a coat to take the oath of office in negative ten-degree weather. He wanted to portray an image of “youth and vigor” as he came to power.So given that Jesus inaugurated His Kingdom on Easter, it’s interesting to note how He appeared physically to Mary. John 20:15 tells us that Mary mistook Jesus for “the gardener.” Of course, Jesus could have chosen to appear any way He wished. But He chose to be mistaken for a gardener. Why?We can’t know for sure, but here’s my guess: In the inauguration of His new creation, I think Jesus is pointing us back to the first creation and the first gardener, Adam. I think Jesus is showing us that He is the “Last Adam” who is wholly unlike the first one. While Adam sinned, Jesus was sinless. While Adam died, Jesus conquered death ushering in the end of nevermore. While Adam’s reign broke creation, Jesus’s reign is meant to restore it.But Jesus isn’t going to restore creation in one fell swoop. He’s going to use our work—our gardening and cultivation of creation—to bring about His Kingdom. New Testament scholar N.T. Wright says, “God’s kingdom, inaugurated through Jesus, is all about restoring creation the way it was meant to be. God always wanted to work in his world through loyal human beings.”You see this in Genesis and you see it again on the first Easter Sunday. In Genesis, God created a blank canvas and called Adam and Eve to fill it. On Easter, King Jesus showed up for Inauguration Day dressed as a gardener as a means of saying, “It’s time to garden again.” It’s time to “fill the earth” again (see Genesis 1:28). Fill it with what? With reflections of the King and His Kingdom—a topic we’ll explore more deeply next week.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:14-17)Now more than ever, our culture tells us to look to our careers for our sense of self-worth and identity. This, of course, leads us to work out of a sense of fear rather than freedom. I don’t think anyone summarized this idea more honestly than Madonna when she said, “My drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being but then I feel I am still mediocre and uninteresting unless I do something else. Because even though I have become somebody, I still have to prove that I am somebody. My struggle has never ended and I guess it never will.”What Madonna is looking for—what we’re all looking for—is a verdict for our lives. We’re looking for someone to say once and for all that we are valuable and worthy—that our very existence is justified. If Madonna can’t find that in her work after becoming one of the most accomplished people in her generation, you and I never will.So, if we can’t find this verdict and identity in our work, where can we find it? We find it at the tomb Jesus walked out of that first Easter morning. On Easter, Jesus secured the most important verdict of your life: Forgiven and, through faith in him, free from the penalty of death because he has conquered it.But our verdict is more than just “forgiven.” Think about a courtroom today. If a defendant is handed the verdict of “not guilty,” they are sent back out into the world to re-enter society on their own. But that’s not how God’s courtroom works. Through Jesus our advocate, we are granted a verdict of innocence. But then the judge, God the Father, does something even more radical: He invites you and me to come home with him to share the inheritance of his Son. We aren’t just forgiven. We are given a new identity as “co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).What does this mean for our work? It means that we can work out of a sense of freedom rather than fear. If we, like Madonna, view our work as a means of chasing an ultimate verdict for our lives, we will never be satisfied. We will constantly be paranoid and afraid because we know the verdict always hangs in the balance. But if we work in response to a secure verdict that is handed down by our Creator, we can work freely as a joyful response of worship.In light of your secure identity as a co-heir with Christ, don’t put yourself back into the courtroom today. Yes, we should be ambitious to do our most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others. But Easter assures us that regardless of what we accomplish today, court is adjourned. The jury has left the building. Our identity as adopted children of God is secure.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:4-7)When Israel was in exile, God didn’t call them to retreat and seclude themselves in their own Jewish subculture. He called them to “settle down” and “seek the peace and prosperity of the city.”Paul issues a similar command to us in Galatians 6:10, saying, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”Simply seeking to “do good to all people” and “seeking the prosperity” of our communities is good and God-honoring in and of itself. We are called to be good citizens, good neighbors, and good workers who seek the prosperity of the companies we lead and work for. This is a form of ministry and service. It may not be as overt as the ministry of your pastor, but it’s ministry nonetheless, as good work is an act of obedience to God and service to others.Since Arthur Guinness founded his brewery in 1759, most of his descendants have chosen one of three career paths. There have been the “brewing Guinnesses,” the “banking Guinnesses,” and what some have called the “Guinnesses for God” who have worked as pastors and donor-supported missionaries.To believe this third group is the only one whose work matters to God would be a terrible mistake. As we’ve seen throughout this series, the work of the Guinnesses who “settled down” in Dublin to seek the prosperity of that and countless other cities have contributed significantly to God’s work in the world.It’s clear that all three lines of Guinnesses understood this. In the excellent biography from which much of this series was derived, the author says the Guinnesses “understood that brewing could be done as a holy offering, as a craft yielded in the service of God. They did not see themselves as secular, but rather as called. They did not see themselves as apart from Christian ministry, but rather as in the Christian ministry of industry and trade. They did not think of their brewing work as a menial way to pay the bills, hoping that they might compensate for such worldliness by giving occasional service to the church. No, they had absorbed the great Reformation ideal that everything a man did was to be done for God…They understood that this transformed workbenches into altars and the labor of a man’s hands into liturgies pleasing to God.”The same can be said of you today, believer. Your workbench is an altar. Your desk is a cathedral. Use it to worship today—to “do good to all people” you come in contact with at work, and in doing so, glorify our great God. In the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. (Deuteronomy 8:17-18)If God is the one “who gives you the ability to produce wealth,” then He gets to dictate what we do with financial excess, whether it’s abundance from a paycheck or profit from a business. As I’ve studied the life of Arthur Guinness and his descendants, it’s clear that they understood this truth deeply. Generation after generation, the Guinnesses have been marked by their generosity to the communities inside and outside of their breweries. But it’s their generosity towards their own team which stands out most to me.In addition to paying wages 10-20% higher than average, Guinness has been known to provide employees with “everything from subsidies for funeral expenses, educational benefits…and a guaranteed two pints of Guinness beer a day.” These types of benefits might seem standard today, but Guinness has been providing many of these things since the 1700s, at a time when such corporate generosity was unheard of. In the words of one Guinness biographer, “the generosity of Guinness seemed unlimited.” Nowhere is this more evident than in what the firm did in the late 1800s. At the time, “Dublin was the Calcutta of its day, a city…beset with filth and disease.” One young Christ-following doctor named John Lumsden believed Guinness could be a part of the solution. Lumsden had “radical ideas about public health care and the duty of corporations to the poor,” so the Guinness Board hired him as the firm’s Chief Medical Officer. That’s when Lumsden proposed something unthinkably audacious. Understanding that “in the crammed slums of Dublin, housing was the key to public health,” Lumsden proposed that the Guinness Board allow him to visit the home of every Guinness employee and report back with a recommendation for what the company could do to help solve the public health crisis. With the Board’s approval, Lumsden visited 1,752 homes in 60 days, representing nearly 10,000 employees and dependents. In his final report, Lumsden recommended the Board take seven incredibly costly actions, including building quality homes the company’s staff could rent at subsidized rates allowing them to escape Dublin’s slums.Most corporations wouldn’t see public housing as a problem they were responsible to fix. Even if they did, wasn’t Guinness already generous enough with their people and their community? Guinness didn’t think so. Due to the faith of their founders and their understanding that they didn’t create their wealth in the first place, the Guinnesses approved most of Lumsden’s recommendations and were credited for lifting untold Dubliners out of poverty.You may not have financial excess the size of a corporation like Guinness. But most of us will see some financial abundance as a result of the work God does through us. May we be people who, like Guinness, allow the recognition that God alone produces wealth shape how we steward that abundance.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. (John 2:1-11)If you’ve ever launched anything new into the world—a business, a book, a new initiative at work—you know how much thought and planning goes into launching well. That perspective makes John’s account of the launch of Jesus’s public ministry all the more remarkable. For the launch event of his Kingdom, Jesus wasn’t preaching. He was turning water into wine. He was beginning to make all things new.New Testament scholar N.T. Wright points out that Jesus’s “signs” and miracles “were all about new creation: water into wine, healings, food for the hungry, sight for the blind, life for the dead.”In other words, Jesus didn’t come just to save our souls and mend the spiritual realm. Jesus came to save the world—including the material world—as the launch of his public ministry so clearly demonstrates.Why does this matter for our work? Because God uses our vocations as a means of mending his broken creation! The life of Arthur Guinness provides a vivid case study of this truth.When Guinness moved to Dublin in the mid-1700s, he found a city in desperate need of spiritual and physical redemption. At that time, people routinely drank from the same water in which they dumped their garbage and sewage, often dying as a result. This led many to avoid water altogether. Instead, they drank alcohol, as the process of making alcoholic beverages killed the germs in water that led to disease. But soon, excessive drinking set in, leading to “the Gin Craze.” Drunkenness became a major problem, leading to an increase in crime and poverty.It was against this backdrop that Guinness saw an opportunity to put his Christian faith into action. Given his background as a beer-brewing apprentice, Guinness believed he could brew a new style of beer (which would come to be known as stout) which would be nutritious, filling, and much lower in alcohol than gin. As the author of The Search for God and Guinness points out, upon seeing this opportunity to redeem his corner of the material world, Arthur “would have come to see his chosen profession as a service to his fellow man” and “brewing…a moral mandate.”So confident was Arthur that this was the work God created him to do, he signed a 9,000-year lease on the land his brewery still sits on more than 250 years later.Like Guinness, the work you and I do today is about bringing about the new creation Jesus inaugurated during his time on earth. What happens when that work produces more personal or business income than we need? That’s the question God’s Word and the example of Guinness will help us answer next week.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)Arthur Guinness moved to Dublin, Ireland at the age of 34; but he didn’t come to the city empty-handed. He brought with him a strain of yeast he had used while mastering the art of brewing beer in his hometown of Kildare. It was that strain of yeast cells that Guinness would use to create an innovative style of beer called stout. But perhaps more mind-boggling than the global adoption of Guinness’s brew is this: According to Guinness’s biographer, today more than 250 years after Arthur founded his brewery, “the original strain of Arthur’s yeast is still at work” and used to produce Guinness beer in breweries all around the world. In this tangible way, Arthur’s work quite literally lives on, more than two centuries after his death.Of course, at some point Arthur’s strain of yeast is bound to die out. No business—not even the mighty Guinness—will last forever. But while his yeast is sure to fade away, some of Arthur Guinness’s work—and some of our work—will last forever.That is precisely the point Paul is making in today’s verse. After a long passage about death and future resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul turns his readers’ attention to the present, urging us to “give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”Commenting on this verse, N.T. Wright, whom Newsweek has called “the world’s leading New Testament scholar,” says this about our work: “You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to roll over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that’s shortly going to be thrown on the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that’s about to be dug up for a building site. You are—strange though it may seem—accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God’s new world.”Wright and Paul are saying that our work will last much longer than Arthur Guinness’s strain of yeast. Our work has the potential to last into God’s everlasting Kingdom. What kind of work will last? “The work of the Lord”—the work we do in our vocations that is aligned with His Word and agenda for the world.How should that perspective shape our work today? How did it shape the perspective of Guinness whose life motto was “My hope is in God”? Those are the questions we will answer over the next few weeks.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.” (Daniel 6:26-27)The context of today’s passage is what makes it remarkable and worthy of particular attention. Not long after King Darius issued a decree that “anyone who prays to any god or human being” other than him would be thrown into the lion’s den (Daniel 6:7), here he is commanding that all his people must fear and revere “the God of Daniel” (Daniel 6:26).What led to this extraordinary change? Most obviously, the miracle of God protecting Daniel from the man-eating lions. But as I hope you’ve seen throughout this series, there’s a second miracle that likely led to Darius’s conversion, and that is the miracle of Daniel’s exceptional work.As we saw a few weeks ago, one of King Darius’s predecessors found Daniel “ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom,” and thus drafted Daniel into the king’s service—his first job at the palace when he was just a teenager (see Daniel 1).Roughly five decades later, it seems as if King Darius shared the same opinion of Daniel. In Daniel 6:3 we learn that “Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that [King Darius] planned to set him over the whole kingdom.”So distinguished was Daniel that when he disobeyed King Darius’s law, the king was “distressed…he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him” (Daniel 6:14).It’s pretty remarkable to see a king fighting this hard to save a servant who broke his own law. After all, the king had 120 other administrators in his service (see Daniel 6:1). But something was different about Daniel. So exceptional was Daniel’s work that the king made a fool of himself fighting to save Daniel’s life.One of the most notable characteristics of Netflix’s company culture is what they call “The Keeper Test.” In an effort to keep their “talent density” high, Netflix managers are encouraged to consider whether or not they would fight to keep a member of their team if that team member were to quit tomorrow.Today’s passage shows us that Daniel is the ultimate passer of The Keeper Test. It also serves as a beautiful reminder of how the ministry of excellence can be used to lead unbelievers like King Darius to the Lord.Here’s my question for you as we close out this series: Would you pass The Keeper Test in your work? Would your boss, customers, or investors fight as hard as Darius fought for Daniel if they knew your demise was at hand? If so, press on, being encouraged by Daniel’s example that excellent work can lead people to a knowledge of the one true God!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.” (Daniel 2:24)The context of today’s verse, found in Daniel 2, contains one of the most absurd accounts in all of Scripture.Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had a series of troubling dreams. So he summoned his many “magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers” to make sense of his nightmares (Daniel 2:2). But the king didn’t just demand interpretation of his dreams. He demanded that his servants guess the content of those dreams as well. He said, “If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble” (Daniel 2:5).Incredulous, the king’s staff replied, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans” (Daniel 2:10-11).King Nebuchadnezzar did not like that answer, so he ordered the execution of all the wise men in Babylon, including Daniel and his friends.But instead of resigning himself to death, Daniel “urged [his friends] to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon” (Daniel 2:18).Stop for a second and appreciate how remarkable this account is. Even though the king’s request was certifiably crazy and impossible for the other wise men of Babylon, Daniel had faith that the God of the Bible could do impossible work through him.And sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. God revealed the content and the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams to Daniel. That’s when Daniel uttered today’s verse, boldly claiming to have the answers nobody else could produce.Centuries before the words were written, Daniel understood what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”Daniel was working “in the world” just as the other wise men of Babylon were. But Daniel worked distinctly. He wielded otherworldly weapons—in this case, intense prayer—and had faith that God could produce otherworldly results through his work.Those same spiritual weapons are available to you and me today, believer. We don’t go to work with the same toolset as our non-Christian counterparts. We go to work with the Creator God dwelling in us. We go to work with His ‘“incomparably great power” (Ephesians 1:19). We go to work with and for the One “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).Are you working as if you believe these things to be true? May we all be like Daniel—those with faith that God is able to do through our work what others believe to be impossible.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com [Daniel said,] “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So [the guard] agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. (Daniel 1:12-20)Last week, we saw how Daniel respectfully declined to obey his employer’s command to eat defiled food from King Nebuchadnezzar’s table, as doing so would have violated his ultimate allegiance to God’s commands.Today’s passage shares the rest of the story, with Daniel proposing an alternative solution and God graciously producing extraordinary results. Verse 20 says that the king found Daniel and his God-fearing friends “ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.”This is the first time we hear of Daniel setting himself apart at work, but it’s certainly not the last. In Daniel 5:14, King Belshazzar says that Daniel was known for his “enlightenment, understanding, and excellent wisdom.” Daniel 6:3 tells us that “Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.”In short, Daniel was exceptional at his job. He was ten times better than his colleagues. And because of that, he (and more importantly, his God) stood out to the unbelievers in the palace where he worked.Google is famous for encouraging their employees to adopt “10X thinking.” The idea is that unlike traditional corporations who think in terms of making a product 10 percent better, Googlers are expected to make their products 10 times better as that is how you stand out in the marketplace.It’s also how we and the God we serve stand out at work.We shouldn’t aim to be 10% better than our colleagues or competitors. We should aim to be like Daniel—10X better. Not so we can pridefully say we’re the best. And not primarily to land a promotion or bigger valuation. We should strive to model Daniel’s example because the ministry of 10X excellence makes us winsome to unbelievers, serves employers and customers well, and brings glory to our great God who must be credited for our inexplicable results.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. (Daniel 1:5-8)Are you working in a company or industry that is agnostic or perhaps even antagonistic to the things of the Lord? The book of Daniel reminds you that God can use your position in powerful ways for His glory. In this four-week series, we will study how Daniel leveraged his long career as a public servant to glorify God through his exceptional work.Today’s passage sets the scene. After the Israelites were conquered by the Babylonians, Daniel finds himself in exile, forced to train to serve the Babylonian king. Right off the bat, Daniel’s new masters command him to eat defiled food from King Nebuchadnezzar’s table and thus violate God’s law.What will Daniel do? What are we to do when our employers or the gurus in our industry ask us to do things that are contrary to God’s Word? After all, in Ephesians 6:5 Paul instructs us to “obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.”But as Daniel’s example shows us, we are only to obey earthly authorities up to the point in which their directives clearly violate God’s law. You hear Peter echoing these same sentiments in Acts 5:29 when he says, “We must obey God rather than human beings!”Eating the food from King Nebuchadnezzar’s table would have violated God’s law. Thus, “Daniel resolved not to defile himself” and respectfully “asked the chief official for permission” to abstain. Daniel understood what we must understand as we work in a fallen world: that our citizenship is ultimately in the Kingdom of God, not in the kingdoms of this world (see Philippians 3:20). While Scripture clearly commands that we obey earthly authorities, we do so only to the point that those authorities demand that we contradict our ultimate allegiance to King Jesus. Daniel was prepared to face the consequences of his decision. We must be prepared to do the same.Where is your employer asking you to contradict God’s Word? How can you winsomely and respectfully push back on those commands in a way in which God would be glorified?If you’re an entrepreneur, in what ways is the status quo of your industry leading you to subtly violate the Lord’s commands? How might you, like Daniel, step out and courageously seek to redeem what’s broken in your space?I pray we’d all meditate on those questions this morning and, like Daniel, choose to honor King Jesus over the kings of this world.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:5-9)We’re in a series exploring three biblical truths that give us the courage to create and work boldly in the midst of uncertain times. This morning, at the beginning of this New Year, we look at our third and final truth: The Lord is always with us.Throughout the Old Testament, the command to “be strong and courageous” is issued again and again. In today’s passage, the Lord commands it three times in just five verses! Clearly, this is something God wants us to pay attention to.But here’s what I believe is most important for us to see. The command to “be strong and courageous” is almost always connected to the promise of the Lord’s constant presence. Joshua 1:9 is a good example: “Be strong and courageous…for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”Before 2021 takes off, take just a moment to meditate on that: The Creator God is with you wherever you go, including at work.What does that truth mean for our work? In Ephesians 3:20, Paul says that because of “[God’s] power that is at work within us,” he is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a writer, a teacher, a stay-at-home-mom, or a designer, you have an unfair advantage. You have the God who is “able to do immeasurably more” than you can imagine within you.Do your goals reflect that truth? Do your prayers for your work in this New Year show that you believe what Scripture says in these passages?In these uncertain times, may we be the people in our communities who have the courage to create and take big swings this year. Why? Because as we saw two weeks ago, God is working all things for our ultimate good. As we saw last week, we are made in the image of a God who risks. And as we’ve seen this morning, we can “be strong and courageous…for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”What might it look like for you to create courageously in 2021? I’d encourage you to prayerfully consider your answer to that question today.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)We’re in a series exploring three biblical truths that give us the courage to create and work boldly in uncertain times. Last week, we saw how the truth that God works everything for our good gives us the courage to create. This morning we look at our second truth: We are made in the image of God who took the ultimate risk to create.It can seem borderline heretical to claim that omnipotent, omniscient God is capable of taking a risk, but pastor Tim Keller argues that’s precisely what we see in Genesis 1-3. Here’s Keller: “You can see the risks and the costs from the very beginning. God made the world filled with human beings made in his image, human beings with free will. So God made the world knowing what it was going to cost him. Knowing what we were going to do. Knowing that [his] Son was going to have to come into the world and experience what he experienced.”When you and I work to create new businesses, medicines, or processes at work, there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty. We are not omniscient and thus do not know whether our creations will fail or succeed. But God is omniscient. He is all-knowing. When God created humankind, He knew precisely the risks He was taking and yet still created out of a desire to share His love and glory with us.What’s my point? Creation always requires risk and sacrifice. Risk isn’t just right. Risk and sacrifice in the service of others is God-like.As we enter 2021, our world is more uncertain than ever. It could be easy to hold back, risk less, and play it safe at work in the New Year. But is that really the example the Father holds out for us? You and I are made in the image of God who created knowing that He would have to send His Son to earth that first Christmas day, only to be crucified some thirty years later.To serve others well in 2021, you may need to risk capital, a potential promotion, or being misunderstood. But none of us will risk more than God did when He created us. Let that truth give us the courage to create boldly as a means of glorifying our Father in the New Year!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)When will this virus get under control? What will happen to our once-booming economy? What will that economy mean for our work? More than ever before, we have far more questions than answers.My fear is that amidst all this uncertainty, we Christ-followers will hold back and be less courageous in our work than we have been before. I fear we’ll set smaller goals, dwarf down our God-given visions, and “play it safe” in the New Year.There are certainly times when it may be wise to risk less, but I’d hate to see us—the Christians in our work communities—earn the reputation for having a lack of courage during these times.To be clear, I’m not talking about the courage to fly on an airplane or go to a restaurant. I’m talking about the courage to create—to take big swings to create new things (or grow existing things) as a means of glorifying God and serving people well.2 Timothy 1:7 reminds us that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power” (emphasis mine). Because of the Spirit’s power within us, we should be the boldest people on the planet—the ones daring greatly to create new businesses, medicines, initiatives, art, and hope.Where can we look in Scripture as we search for the courage to create? Over the next three weeks, we’ll explore three passages that answer that question, beginning with today’s passage: Romans 8:28.We can risk boldly because we know that in success or failure, God is working “all things” for His glory and the good of His Church.How can failure be worked for “good”? There are many answers to that question, but the one I’ve personally found to be most compelling is that our reaction to professional failures can preach a powerful sermon of the gospel to the lost.One of my non-Christian friends frequently comments on how much he admires my ability to “take big swings” and risks in business and in life. This friend knows my failures and my successes, but it’s my courage to create in the face of great risk that is winsome to him. This friend once said to me, “You have no fear.” I explained that’s absolutely not true. I have fears, but I also have Christ, and it’s the security of His love that enables me to risk.I’ll close today’s devotional with Jesus’s words in John 16:33: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”As you look towards 2021 and pray about what God may be calling you to chase after professionally, “take courage; Jesus has overcome the world” and is working everything for His glory and your ultimate good.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him. (Ephesians 6:5-9)Today, we conclude our study of Ephesians with a passage that contains some of the most direct instructions about work in all of Scripture for both “slaves” and “masters” (or in our modern parlance, employees and employers).First, let’s look at the most obvious commands. If you work for someone else, Paul commands you to obey them “with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” If you employ others, you are to “treat your [team] in the same way”—with respect, honor, and a lack of favoritism.Those are the clearest and most direct commands in this passage. But I’d also invite you to take a closer look at verses 7-8, which command all of us to “serve wholeheartedly” at work. Why is Paul calling us to work with enthusiasm?First, because in serving others at work we are “serving the Lord” (verse 7). This is our primary motivation for doing wholehearted, exceptional work. Excellence is ministry and part of how we love our employers, employees, and customers as ourselves and glorify our great God. That is motivating in and of itself.But let’s not ignore the fact that Paul also holds out extrinsic rewards for good work as a secondary motivator. You see it right there in verse 8: “Serve wholeheartedly…because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.” This is far from the only place that Paul claims that there are eternal rewards tied to how we steward our vocations (see 1 Corinthians 3:5-9, 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, and Hebrews 6:10-12). Jesus also suggested the same thing in the Parable of the Talents (see Matthew 25:14-30).Scripture couldn’t be clearer: There are eternal rewards for how we work in this life and it is good and right for those rewards to lead us to care deeply about serving others, and by extension the Lord, through the ministry of excellence at work. May that promise lead you to work with great enthusiasm today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)Today, we’re looking at what my friend Matt Perman calls “the core New Testament passage on productivity.” But before we take a closer look at Ephesians 5:15-17, we need to establish some context.After expounding upon the gospel of grace in Ephesians 1-4, the apostle Paul reminds us of our status as “dearly loved children” of God in Ephesians 5:1. What is our response to our adoption as sons and daughters of God? Today’s passage contains part of the answer to that question.Paul is saying that part of our response to the gospel is to “[make] the most of every opportunity.” I prefer how the NKJV translates that phrase as “redeeming the time.”The Greek word exagorazó which we translate to mean “redeeming” in “redeeming the time” literally means to “buy up” or “ransom.” If you’ve ever said, “I wish I could buy more time,” that’s the idea here. As Christians, we are called to “buy up” as much time as we can, managing our time as carefully and wisely as possible towards the purposes of our Father. Commenting on this passage, Tim Keller said, “Christians are solemnly obliged not to waste time. Time-stewardship is a command!”Why are we commanded to steward our time wisely? Not so that we will have more time to spend on selfish pursuits. We are called to redeem our time because “the days are evil” and we are running out of time to do the will of the Lord. Jen Wilkin puts it this way: “We are commanded to be time redeemers, those who reclaim our time from useless pursuits and employ it to the glory of God.”Amen. Paul is showing us that good time management isn’t “unspiritual.” It is a proper response to the gospel and our adoption into God’s family. God is at work in the world and He has invited us to participate in that work through our vocations. With that in mind, let us be “time redeemers” who make the most of this short life for our Father’s great glory.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. (Ephesians 4:28)Even if you’re not known to steal to make ends meet, this passage still offers a lot of wisdom for our work. The key is found in Paul’s choice of the word “useful.” If the only reason for our work was to generate enough income to “share with those in need,” then why would it matter if our work was useful to the world? It wouldn’t. We’d be free to do any work so long as it generated enough financial resources to serve the poor. But with just one word, Paul is reminding us of one of the main themes of all his letters: That the work you and I do today has many God-glorifying purposes.We have been exploring some of those purposes throughout this series. In Ephesians 1, we learned that our work is a means of pointing to the marriage of heaven and earth. In Ephesians 2, we learned that our work is a means of doing “good works” for others and glorifying God in the process. In Ephesians 3, we learned that our work is a means of demonstrating God’s “immeasurably great” power working through us.All of these are purposes for work beyond sharing with the poor. In other words, a theology of work exists independent of a theology of charity. That said, we simply can’t ignore the fact that one of the purposes of work is charity—to “share with those in need.”When we do our most exceptional work, we will often be rewarded with financial excess. One God-honoring use of that excess is to share it generously with those who have none—an especially timely message given the terrible economic times we are living in. The poor need our help, and we the Church are called to give it. We can debate what form that help takes, but we can’t argue Scripture’s command that those who are gainfully employed are to care for the poor.But again, we must be careful. Too often we fall for the lie that charity is the only way to “do ministry” through our work. The context of Ephesians and the rest of Scripture show us that that’s not true. While caring for the poor is a wonderful, God-glorifying purpose for our work, let’s never forget that our work is “useful” in and of itself.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)John 14:12 records what I have to imagine was one of the most shocking things the disciples ever heard Jesus say: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”Upon hearing this, the disciples must have been floored. They had seen Jesus give sight to the blind, feed the five thousand, and raise Lazarus from the dead. We’re going to do “greater things than these” Jesus? Yes.Paul is reminding us of this same truth here in Ephesians 3, saying that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” As we’ve seen over the last few weeks, God chooses to work through us and our “good works” to bring His Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” Combine this with Jesus and Paul’s reminders of God’s “immeasurable” power, and I think we all can admit that our prayers for our work are far too small.This isn’t name-it-and-claim-it “theology.” Far from it. We aren’t to pray big prayers to increase the size of our paycheck. Lord knows, that would be the worst thing to happen to most of us. No, we ought to pray bigger prayers with an aim towards expanding the Kingdom through our work!We should be praying that poverty would be eradicated in our cities because our businesses have provided meaningful work and a living wage to every one of its citizens. We should be praying that we’d have the privilege of seeing every one of our co-workers come to know and follow Jesus. We should be praying that millions more customers would smell the aroma of Christ through how we work and the exceptional products we create.Of course, our motives are never fully pure. But through the Holy Spirit groaning on our behalf (Romans 8:26), God is able to take our prayers for our work and turn them into words that honor Him. Take a minute this morning to pray that the Lord would enlarge your vision for your work, not as a means of accumulation, but as a means of service to God and others.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)For good reason, Ephesians 2:8-9 is one of the most quoted passages of Scripture in the Church. But in my experience, it’s rare to hear someone preach all the way through verse 10. That’s a shame, because the marriage of verse 10 to verses 8 and 9 could not be more important for our work. When read in its entirety, this passage shows us that the gospel is our ultimate source of rest and ambition.The first half of the passage couldn’t be clearer: Our status as adopted children of God is “by grace….through faith,” and thus “not by works.” What a glorious truth! While we were His enemy, Christ died for us, gracing us with salvation we could never earn and thus can never lose.Years ago, in an effort to help my kids grasp this truth, I borrowed a nighttime routine I learned from Tim Keller. Before I turn out their lights, I ask my girls, “Do you know I love you no matter how many good things you do?” They nod their heads. “Do you know I love you no matter how many bad things you do?” They nod again. Then I ask, “Who else loves you like that?” and they always reply, “Jesus.”You and I need to hear those same words applied to our work. God loves you and I no matter how productive or unproductive we are today. Ironically, it’s that truth that gives us the ambition to be wildly productive. Why? Because working to earn someone’s favor is exhausting. But working in response to unconditional favor is intoxicating. Once you realize that God accepts you “no matter how many good things you do,” you want to be productive for His agenda as a loving act of worship.That’s a good thing, because as Paul makes clear in verse 10, one of the very purposes of our salvation is to do “good works” for others. Jesus made this equally clear in Matthew 5:16 when he said, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” The very purpose of our lives—the reason we were created and saved—was to do “good works” that advance God’s Kingdom and glorify Him.We don’t do these “good works” to earn His favor. We are ambitious for good work because His favor is graciously secure, leading us to work for His agenda as a loving act of worship. Worship Him by doing good, excellent work for others today!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ….I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. (Ephesians 1:8b-10…18-21)What is the will of God? “To bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (see verse 10). Heaven and earth are not meant to be separate forever. They are destined to be married together, and one day they will be as Revelation 21 makes clear.What does that future hope mean for our work today? Everything! As those “under Christ” and His authority, we are called to work in a way that makes the world long for heaven to come to earth. We are called to work through the rehearsal dinner if you will, giving a glimpse of the glorious wedding that is to come.If you’re an entrepreneur, that means you lead your venture in adherence to the Bridegroom’s commands. If you’re an artist, that means you tell stories that cause people to long for redemption and hope. If you’re a teacher, that means you work to develop a hunger for truth in the hearts of your students. All of us are called to work in ways that are so different, so compelling, so exceptional that the world groans for more of the Christ-like qualities that make our work unique.Sound like an impossible task? It is if we work in our own strength. But as verse 19 reminds us, you and I have the “incomparably great power” of God working through us via the Spirit. The same God who created the heavens and the earth works through you. The same God that raised the dead to life works through you. The same God who will one day finish our work and make “all things new” works through you.Take a moment to let that truth sink in this morning. You and I have unfathomable capacity to create for the Kingdom. Let us work boldly towards that end, that those we work with would want to see more of our King in this earth.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)On July 26, 1833, the British Parliament voted to abolish the slave trade. The great victory came more than 45 years after William Wilberforce first met the great Hannah More.A few days later, Wilberforce died. A few weeks after that, More joined her friend in glory—a poetic end to the lives of the great poet and parliamentarian.A few years after More’s death, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote a now-famous essay titled A Defence of Poetry. In it, he credited Christian writers and artists such as More with ending slavery and emancipating women, saying “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”Tomorrow is Election Day in the U.S., and I pray you will vote. But whoever you vote for, I hope you will remember this: Culture wars will never be won solely through the election of the “right candidates” or their appointment of the “right judges.” Hannah More and William Wilberforce show us that “the only way to change culture is to create more of it.” So sure, vote for the change you believe God has called the Church to advocate for in the world. But if you really care, don’t just vote. Roll up your sleeves and create for change. Because that is how change happens.In the words of More herself, “I hope the poets and painters will at last bring the Bible into fashion and that people will get to like it from taste, though they are insensible to its spirits, and afraid of its doctrines.”“People will get to like it from taste.”Sounds a lot like Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.Paul says that the gospel and the ways of our Redeemer are “foolishness” to the world (see 1 Corinthians 1:18). But through our work, we can be salt making the world want a taste of the Kingdom.But Jordan, I’m not a poet. How does this apply to me?We’re all called to work and create as a means of extending the Kingdom. Remember Jesus’s parting words to his disciples recorded in Acts 1:8: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”All of us are his “witnesses.” Witnesses to what? His resurrection and corresponding lordship of the world. The whole world is—present tense—under His authority. We are witnesses to that truth, called to take the message of His kingship “to the ends of the earth.”You may not create a poem that convinces a generation of women to choose life for their unplanned children, but can you and your family create space in your family or budget to care for orphans?If you’re an entrepreneur, can you create products that replace deceptive or harmful ones in your industry?If you’re an employee, can you work in a way that is so humble, so life-giving, so exceptional that your co-workers will “get to like” Jesus and His gospel from their interactions with you?Poets, writers, artists, and musicians: Can you use the power of the Creator God in you to tell stories of truth, redemption, and hope?By all means, vote for change. But may we be people who do the much harder, much more impactful work of creating for change for the Kingdom.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)After William Wilberforce’s conversion to Christianity in 1786, he defined the “Great Object” of his work in Parliament as nothing less than the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire.To his credit, Wilberforce sensed that this change could not immediately be legislated. First, the hearts and minds of his countrymen would need to be transformed. To accomplish that, Wilberforce knew he “desperately needed someone in the world of culture.” He found that someone in Hannah More, the prolific playwright, poet, and author I’ve been introducing you to in this series.By all accounts, Wilberforce and More hit it off from their first meeting. Over time, More would become Wilberforce’s “closest collaborator,” the two forming one of the most powerful partnerships of all time. As Wilberforce’s biographer wrote, “How Wilberforce came to be the chief champion of abolition—and how he was able to succeed in ending the slave trade in Great Britain in 1807, after twenty years of battling—has everything to do with Hannah More.”Soon after their first meeting, the partners were in agreement: Wilberforce would fight the battle against slavery with legislation in Parliament, while More would fight with quills and public poems.Almost immediately, More went to work, writing a poem titled Slavery which was designed to help sway public opinion on the slave trade and influence members of Parliament to vote for Wilberforce’s proposed bill. Through this poem and other works of art, More “helped the average Briton see the humanity of the African slaves for the first time….Her words pricked the consciences of millions, who came to feel that their country—which called itself a Christian country—must have no part in such an evil. Eventually hundreds of thousands of Britons signed petitions against the slave trade, which were brought by Wilberforce into Parliament and swayed its members toward abolition.”The work went on like this for more than 45 years—Wilberforce introducing bill after bill, More writing poem after poem—until finally, legislative change came with the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.What can we learn from the partnership between this poet and parliamentarian? At least two things.First, as we’ve seen throughout this series, cultural change almost always precedes legislative change. We must work to change hearts before we can work to change laws.Second, Wilberforce and More show us that each of us has a different, important role to play in creating for God’s Kingdom. Today’s passage shows us that each of us has received different gifts to be leveraged “for the common good.” We aren’t to keep our God-given gifts to ourselves. We are to use them to shape culture for our King.Next week, we will look at that call even more closely.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:4-7)As we saw last week, the most proven strategy for cultivating large scale cultural change is not electing the “right people” and trusting them to force legislative change from the top-down. Mass change happens when hearts and minds are transformed. And hearts and minds are transformed not by laws but by acts of culture. As Andy Crouch says in his exceptional book, Culture Making, “The only way to change culture is to create more of it.”But if we’re honest, creating for change requires a level of engagement that many in the Church aren’t used to. Part of the appeal of merely voting for change is that it is relatively easy. If you don’t like the direction the world is heading, it’s far easier to sit on social media and rage against the machine than it is to roll up your sleeves and actually do something. So we vote and pray that politicians in Washington, London, or Brasília will do the work for us.In a way, this is a form of retreat. This is our “temporary home,” so rather than work to change the world, we create Christian subcultures and sit back and wait for eternity. But as today’s passage shows us, that is not the call of the Church. Like Israel was in Babylon, we too are in exile, awaiting the arrival of our eternal home. But that doesn’t let us off the hook in the present. No, we are called to create and engage—to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city.”Hannah More understood this call well. In 18th-century London, More was a prolific playwright and author “whose works at the time outsold Jane Austen’s ten to one.” From humble beginnings, More was catapulted into great wealth, fame, and the distinction by historians as “nothing less than the most influential woman of her time.”More’s remarkable influence had everything to do with how she used her talents to advance God’s Kingdom. She didn’t view her faith as a private thing to be disconnected from her work. More saw her work as a means of shaping culture and putting every square inch of creation under the lordship of Jesus Christ.As More’s biographer wrote, “She did not wish to retreat from culture into a religious sphere, but rather to advance with the wisdom and truth of religion into the cultural sphere.” Indeed, themes of the “wisdom and truth” of the gospel made their way into much of what More wrote, making her a powerful combatant in the “culture wars” of her own day.As she once wrote, “One must not merely rail against the darkness, but must instead light a proverbial candle by creating literary and cultural works that rival and surpass the bad.”As we’ll see next week, the greatest “darkness” of More’s time was the abomination of slavery. And it would be this poet’s partnership with a politician named William Wilberforce that would lead to slavery’s abolition.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:27-28)It seems like every day a new skirmish breaks out in our never-ending “culture wars.” Whether the fight is over COVID, race relations, abortion, or gender equality, we are more divided than ever in the battle over right and wrong.Every four years, the American political machinery pitches the same strategy for winning these culture wars: Elect the right person and they will introduce new laws or appoint the right judges to legislate our desired brand of change.But is this really how large-scale cultural change happens?The evidence suggests that it is not. Just as Adam and Eve were called to “fill the earth” before they were called to “rule” it, so it appears that cultural creation precedes political change.Take the LGBTQ+ cause as an example. This movement started to gain meaningful traction, not after a law was passed, but once Hollywood got intentional about writing empathetic and entertaining gay characters. As Vice President Biden said in 2012, “When things really begin to change is when the social culture changes. I think Will & Grace did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has done [politically] so far.”Look at the abolitionist movement in the U.S. as another quick case study. The tide against slavery turned long before the Civil War or President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Anti-slavery sentiment took off after the massive success of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. So great was the impact of that cultural good that upon meeting its author, Lincoln said, “So, you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.”Across the pond in Great Britain, we see the same story. As I pointed out in a recent devotional series, William Wilberforce is credited as the man chiefly responsible for abolishing the slave trade in the British Parliament (paving the way for Stowe and Lincoln in the U.S.). But as many historians have pointed out, Wilberforce’s legislative change would have never happened without the cultural change that preceded it. As one Wilberforce biographer points out, “The genius of the abolitionists—and the likely reason for their ultimate success—is that they understood that their battle was not merely political and went to great lengths to make the cultural case against slavery and the trade as well….How Wilberforce came to be the chief champion of abolition….after twenty years of battling…has everything to do with Hannah More.”Who was Hannah More? Not a politician, but a culture maker like you and me. Over the next few weeks, I want to introduce you to this remarkable woman, and in doing so, outline the most proven playbook for creating large scale cultural change for the Kingdom.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)Today is the final devotional in a series that I pray has helped you dispel the idea of waiting to “feel a peace” about decisions at work and at home. Over the past two weeks, we have looked at a couple of biblical truths that can help us grow in confidence as we make tough choices:First, God rarely gives us all the information we want before making a decision.And second, God doesn’t need us to make any specific decision.Today, we look at the third and final truth, which is related to the second: So long as we are obeying God’s Word, we can’t make a “wrong” decision.When we read today’s Scripture (Romans 8:28), we typically think of “all things” in the context of negative things that happen to us: losing a job, shutting down a business, losing a loved one. Of course, Romans 8:28 promises that God will work all of those things “for the good of those who love him.” But it’s not only those things He will work for good. He will also work every one of our decisions for our good and His glory.Last week, we saw a similar promise in Proverbs 19:21 which reads, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Commenting on that verse, pastor Tim Keller said, “In a sense, for a Christian, there is no ‘plan B.’”If you believe that God’s purposes will prevail no matter what and you believe that He will work everything for your good and His glory, then so long as a decision isn’t out of line with God’s Word, there’s no such thing as a “wrong” decision, believer! You are free to choose.What decision is weighing on you today? Whether to stay or leave your job? Whether to launch that product or the other? Whether to donate to that ministry or the other?Whatever it is, don’t wait around for a vague feeling of peace about the decision. Look for wisdom in God’s Word. Seek counsel from other believers. And then choose.How can you choose with confidence? By remembering the truths we have explored in this series and the concrete promise of peace you have as an adopted child of God. Whatever you decide, His will will be done and your status as a co-heir with Christ will be secure.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. (Proverbs 19:21)We’re in a series debunking this idea that Christians should wait on a “sense of peace” before making big decisions, replacing that myth with three biblical truths that can grow our confidence to make tough choices. Last week, we saw the first truth, that God rarely gives us all the information we want before making a decision. Today, we look at the second: God doesn’t need us to make any specific decision.If you’re reading these devotionals, it’s because you care deeply about doing your most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others. That is your overriding passion at work, and that of course is a wonderful thing! But that burning desire can easily lead to over-analyzing certain decisions, which ironically holds us back from participating in the work God is up to in the world.I know I have struggled with this before: What if this partnership isn’t God’s will for my business? What if I make the wrong choice in this hire? What if we picked the wrong marketing campaign?Here’s what I’m learning: So long as our decisions are not out of line with God’s Word, I don’t know that God particularly cares about the specific decisions we make. I think He cares deeply about what’s going on in our hearts as we make our decisions, but not the decisions themselves. Why? Because no matter which decisions you and I make, the Lord’s purposes will prevail (see Proverbs 19:21).God doesn’t need you to take that specific job.He doesn’t need you to launch that specific product.He doesn’t need you to send your kids to that specific school.Regardless of what we choose, His purposes will prevail.If I die tomorrow and God wants these devotionals to carry on, He will find someone else to do it. That may sound depressing to you, but to me, it sounds liberating!This truth means that when we are faced with big decisions in our work and lives, we have the freedom to choose. Of course, we should take time to wisely evaluate important decisions, but at some point, we just have to make a choice, even if we don’t “feel a peace” about the decision.Recognizing the biblical truth that God doesn’t need you or me to make any specific decision helps us do that. Next week, we’ll look at one final biblical truth that can grow your confidence as you seek to make wise decisions at work and at home.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)Last week, we debunked the myth that Christians should wait for an amorphous “sense of peace” before making big decisions.This morning, I’m sharing the first of three biblical truths that can grow our confidence to make decisions at work and at home. Here it is: God rarely gives us all the information we want before making a decision.That may not sound freeing, but trust me, it is. Hang with me for a minute.Genesis 12:1 tells us that God asked Abraham to leave behind his country, people, and family and head to an undisclosed location—clearly information Abraham would have loved to have known before deciding whether or not he would obey. But as we just read in Hebrews 11:8, Abraham obeyed God despite the fact that “he did not know where he was going.” Do you think Abraham experienced a warm and fuzzy “feeling” of peace about making this move? I doubt it.Just like Abraham, God doesn’t give you and me all the information we feel we need to make important decisions at work and at home. Through His Word, His people, and the Spirit’s leading, God often only gives us clarity about one step at a time. He gives us wisdom to discern “the next right thing” and then expects us to step out in faith even if we don’t “feel a peace” about where that next right thing might lead. At the risk of offering two Frozen II references in a single paragraph, oftentimes God calls us “into the unknown.”This truth is paradoxically freeing. If we grasp this, we can stop waiting for an unreliable feeling of peace, and start relying on the certain peace that comes from recognizing that if God took care of our eternal needs, He will surely care for our temporal ones.Here’s what one of my favorite Bible teachers, Jen Wilkin, says on this topic: “We want a peek into what’s next. For the unbeliever, it’s horoscopes, palm readings, and tarot cards. For the believer, it’s much the same thing, loosely draped in religious trappings: asking God for an extrabiblical sign, claiming a Bible promise out of context…We tell ourselves that if we knew the future, we would put that knowledge to good use, but how likely is that? It’s far more likely that we would use that knowledge to stoke the flames of our self-reliance and to forward our own interests.”Man, that’s good.Chances are that God’s not going to give you all the information you want before you make a decision about that job, product launch, or move. Let that truth free you to make a choice and rely more on Him and His assurance of peace in the process.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:15)Decisions, decisions. We are faced with a never-ending list of them at work and at home.Which candidate do I hire? Do I get my MBA or get a job? Do we move or stay?As Christians evaluate decisions like these, there’s a phrase we often utter once we’ve made up our minds: “I just feel such a sense of peace about my decision.” Or conversely, if we’re having difficulty making a decision, we’ll say, “I just don’t feel at peace one way or another.”But once we have that amorphous sense of peace, the discussion is over. One pastor hit the nail on the head saying, “When an internal sense of peace becomes the ultimate rationale for decision-making, no one can question you. It’s the ultimate mic drop—akin to saying God told you to do something.”There are a few passages of Scripture people point to when claiming that we should wait for a feeling of peace before making a decision. Philippians 4:6-7 and 2 Thessalonians 3:16 are two of them. But perhaps the most common one is Colossians 3:15, which you read above.The key to unlocking the meaning of this verse is understanding what the word translated “peace” here actually means. The Greek word Paul uses here is eirēnē which, according to Strong’s Biblical Concordance, suggests, “the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ.” It’s the exact same word Paul uses in Romans 5:1 when he says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace [eirēnē] with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”In Romans 5:1 and Colossians 3:15, Paul isn’t promising a vague feeling of peace about specific decisions, but a concrete promise of peace with God that is secure regardless of which decisions we make. You and I don’t have to wait for a feeling of peace to overwhelm us before we make a decision. Paul is saying that you and I already have all the peace we need. We are adopted sons and daughters of God. We have peace with God and no decision can alter that status.OK, so if an internal feeling of peace isn’t the end-all-be-all for making decisions, what can believers rely on when making hard choices?First, we rely on God’s Word. If a decision would cause us to sin, it’s a non-starter, even if we have “peace” about our intention to disobey the Lord’s commands.Second, we rely on wisdom from God’s people whom the Holy Spirit speaks through (see Matthew 10:20).Finally, we rely on our God-given freedom to decide.But let’s be honest: Finding the confidence to make decisions can be hard. Over the next three weeks, we will look at three biblical truths that can grow our confidence to make decisions at work and at home.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. (Psalm 115:1)After decades of working diligently toward his life’s goal, William Wilberforce witnessed the British Parliament vote to abolish the slave trade in 1807. Twenty-six years later, in 1833, Parliament would vote for full emancipation, freeing slaves throughout the British Empire. Wilberforce received the glorious news on his deathbed and went home to be with the Lord three days later.The British people credited Wilberforce as the man chiefly responsible for the historic event, but Wilberforce was quick to deflect the glory back to God, recognizing that he was merely an instrument in the hands of his Maker.When the nation was on the cusp of abolishing the slave trade in 1807, Wilberforce wrote, “How popular Abolition is just now! God can turn the hearts of men.” God undoubtedly used Wilberforce’s once-in-a-generation skills as an orator to “turn the hearts of men,” but Wilberforce was giving ultimate credit where credit was truly due. In the words of one Wilberforce biographer, “He was fully determined to give God the glory when the glory at last would fall.”Much of Wilberforce’s humility was rooted in his understanding of what we explored a few weeks back, namely that God didn’t need Wilberforce specifically to eradicate slavery. Almighty God could have chosen anyone to carry out His will. Wilberforce viewed his work as a privilege to partner with God in the redemption of creation—of playing his part to eradicate evil from this corner of the world.Emancipation in Britain eventually paved the way for abolishing slavery elsewhere, including in America. This accomplishment alone makes Wilberforce one of the most productive people in history on behalf of “the gospel of the Kingdom” (Matthew 24:14). And yet, Wilberforce “went to the grave sincerely and deeply regretting that he hadn’t done much more.” Even Wilberforce died with what Catholic theologian Karl Rahner called “unfinished symphonies.”Wilberforce’s ambition to do more through his work wasn’t out of a misplaced attempt to earn God’s favor or work for his salvation. It was in response to the gift of salvation God had given him decades before. In response to the gospel, Wilberforce’s friend John Wesley encouraged him and others to “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”Let that be our anthem today!Like Wilberforce, God can use our work—whether we’re in politics, business, education, or the arts—to redeem His creation. Let us be wildly ambitious to steward our time and talents well to that end!

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)When we are engaged in the work God has called us to do in the world, some level of persecution is inevitable. For William Wilberforce, who had chosen to make abolition of the powerful slave trade the “Great Object” of his life, the persecution was intense.Wilberforce had every reason to be afraid for his life. During his decades-long fight to end slavery, multiple slave-ship captains threatened Wilberforce’s life. One even challenged him to a duel. As one of his biographers wrote, Wilberforce “seriously believed he was likely to die violently when some enemy of abolition made good on one of the several threats he had received since becoming the cause’s chiefest champion.”Thank God Wilberforce was surrounded by other believers who encouraged him to fear God more than man. On his deathbed, the great preacher John Wesley wrote this to Wilberforce: “Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you?”Reminders of biblical truths like these kept Wilberforce going, even when he was in fear for his own life. But Wilberforce wasn’t just afraid for his life. He also had good reason to fear for his reputation as he diligently and boldly shared the gospel with his fellow Parliamentarians. In his journal, Wilberforce kept a list of friends, and next to each name, a series of what he called “launchers”—topics and angles he planned to bring up to steer conversations with that person to the subject of eternity.Wilberforce understood that Jesus has called each of us to be “full-time missionaries” sharing the gospel as we work in every square inch of creation—even if it means damaging our reputations. When Wilberforce was first elected to Parliament, there were 3 members who identified themselves as serious Christians. Fifty years later, there were nearly 200. In the words of his biographer, “Wilberforce’s influence [to this end]…is hard to avoid.”As you go to work today, fear God, not man. Whether you’re in fear for your life or your reputation, whether you’re fighting evil or sharing the gospel with co-workers, remember that if God is for you, no one can truly be against you (Romans 8:31).

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4–7)Prior to Christ, the only object of Wilberforce’s work was his own glory. But upon his conversion, Wilberforce began asking questions about what God was up to in the world and how he might leverage his vocation to join in his Savior’s mission.But where was Wilberforce to start? Britain had so many wrongs that needed to be righted: prolific prostitution, the orphan crisis, poverty, and of course the slave trade, which Wilberforce described as “that hideous traffic, so disgraceful to the British character.”Wilberforce knew that he needed to focus intensely on one or two causes in Parliament in order to make the most of the life the Lord had given him to steward. But he was far less clear about what that cause should be. So, he took more than a year to explore his options. As one of his biographers wrote, “[Wilberforce] wasn’t about to be bullied or badgered into a decision on how to spend the rest of his life….He would need to know God’s mind, as he would put it…Wilberforce was not about to leap into the fray thoughtlessly; he would first ‘count the cost.’”After he counted the cost and identified the object the Lord was leading him to focus on (the abolition of slavery), Wilberforce recognized that he needed to go all-in and focus singularly on that “Great Object.” And quickly, too. As his dear friend and prime minister William Pitt told him as Wilberforce was close to committing to the cause of abolition, “Do not lose time or the ground will be occupied by another.”Wilberforce knew that if “God Himself was calling him to this task and he shrank from it, God too could find another to do it, and surely would.” In this, Wilberforce demonstrated remarkable humility in choosing his vocational path. He knew that if God wanted slavery abolished, He would find the right person to work through to that end. God didn’t need Wilberforce specifically to accomplish His plans.I imagine Wilberforce meditating on Proverbs 19:21 at this critical juncture of his career: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” The Lord’s purpose would have prevailed with or without Wilberforce. But Wilberforce wanted the privilege of being a part of fighting evil on behalf of his Savior. And so, Wilberforce committed to the “Great Object” of his career from that moment forward: He would be God’s instrument for ending slavery throughout Great Britain.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15–16)After William Wilberforce’s conversion to Christianity at the age of 26, his “Great Change” led to immediate and practical changes in two areas of his life: how he spent his money and time.In the words of one of his biographers, “Before ‘the Great Change,’ Wilberforce had reckoned his money and time his own, to do with as he pleased….But suddenly he knew that this could no longer be the case. The Scriptures were plain and could not be gainsaid on this most basic point: all that was his—his wealth, his talents, his time—was not really his. It all belonged to God and had been given to him to use for God’s purposes and according to God’s will.”While Wilberforce’s relationship with money changed greatly post-conversion, the way he managed his time changed even more dramatically. After the Lord grabbed ahold of his life, Wilberforce grieved over how he previously spent his life. “I condemned myself for having wasted my precious time, and opportunities, and talents,” he said. And so he wrote this resolution in his personal journal: “To endeavour from this moment to amend my plan for time. I hope to live more than heretofore to God’s glory and my fellow-creatures’ good.”Wilberforce’s response to the gospel was remarkably practical. He understood that God had saved him to do good works in the world and redeem what was broken in creation. And that led him to deeply internalize Paul’s command to manage his time wisely: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16).Wilberforce started making sure he got adequate sleep, his journal filled with disciplined notes to himself such as, “Go to bed at eleven and wake at six.” He started walking around London with an inkwell and quill in his pocket in order to capture productive thoughts as they entered his head. And perhaps most significantly, Wilberforce began spending long chunks of time in Scripture, reading it daily and using long walks to meditate, pray, and recite passages to himself.Being intentional about how we manage our time may seem “unspiritual,” but if we believe that we were created to work for the glory of God and the good of others, it is one of the most spiritual things we can do. As Paul wrote, “the days are evil.” Let us, like Wilberforce, be intentional about stewarding them well.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)William Wilberforce was easily one of the most productive people of all time.First elected to British Parliament in 1780 at the age of 21, Wilberforce was a boy king. At one point in his life, he was officially linked to 69 separate social reform groups throughout Great Britain. Oh yeah, and he was the man chiefly responsible for abolishing slavery across the British Empire and eventually the world. As one of Wilberforce’s biographers said, “It’s difficult to escape the verdict that William Wilberforce was simply the greatest social reformer in the history of the world.”Early in his career, Wilberforce was ambitious for all the wrong things, namely the accumulation of power, wealth, and privilege. But his ambition was transformed when he submitted his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ at the age of 26, ushering in what Wilberforce referred to as his “Great Change.”Like many young Christians, Wilberforce’s knee-jerk reaction to his newfound faith was to abandon his vocation. Seeking advice from his friend John Newton (yes, the great minister who wrote Amazing Grace), Wilberforce expected his minister friend to encourage him to resign from Parliament so that he could truly “live now for God.” But “Newton encouraged Wilberforce to stay where he was, saying that God could use him there. Most others in Newton’s place would likely have insisted that Wilberforce pull away from the very place where his salt and light were most needed. How good that Newton did not.”Amen. If Wilberforce’s “Great Change” had led to a great change in his work, where would the world be today? Certainly further away from the Kingdom of God.Wilberforce deeply understood what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” You see, the very purpose for which you and I and William Wilberforce were created and saved in Christ was to do good works and glorify the Father in the process. Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).Wilberforce’s good works included abolishing the abomination of slavery, bringing us one step closer to the Lord’s will being done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). His salvation didn’t change his occupation, but it did radically change his relationship to his work. Next week, we’ll see exactly how.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)If you’ve ever watched the TV show Heroes, you’ll likely recall the show’s famous line: “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” The idea was that if the characters of the show could save the life of a cheerleader named Claire, they could save the universe from destruction. And with this charge, the characters focused on that singular goal.As I’ve argued in this series, the Church often takes an equally myopic view of which activities matter for eternity, believing that the only way in which our vocations matter is if we share the gospel with those around us.As I hope I’ve made clear, while sharing the gospel is a good, Jesus–commanded thing to do, it is far from the only God-honoring thing we do through our work. As we’ve seen, our work can be a means of glorifying God, loving neighbor as self, building for the Kingdom, and spreading the aroma of Christ.Today, I want to explore this question: What if spreading the aroma of Christ—or, in other words, working to restore all of creation and not just the souls who dwell in it—can be a means by which people come to faith in Jesus? In other words, what if saving the world is a primary means by which we save the cheerleader?Let me offer one more analogy that I think might be helpful.My wife Kara and I love to travel. It is one of the things we miss most in this post-pandemic world. Recently, Kara and I were talking about how we wanted to go to San Diego because of the city’s gorgeous beaches, clean downtown, world-class zoo, and friendly people. Believe it or not, the mayor of San Diego never once came up in our conversation. We don’t travel because we’re interested in the character or the policies of the person who rules a particular city. We are attracted by what that person’s policies produce.What if the same is true of the Kingdom of God? What if one of the primary ways that God brings people to submission to his kingship is by giving them tastes of truth, justice, and joy—tastes of the Kingdom?Revelation 21 makes clear that one day, Jesus will finish the building of the Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” But until then, he has called you and I to be his agents in the world, spreading his aroma and the news of his kingship through our work. As N.T. Wright says, “[God] calls his followers to live in him and to be new-creation people here and now, bringing signs and symbols of the kingdom to birth on earth as in heaven.”Let us all embrace our vocations—our attempts to bring “signs and symbols” and the “aroma of Christ” into the world—as good, and God-honoring things in and of themselves, as well as a means of making people long to submit to the lordship of the One True King.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)By the time C.S. Lewis turned 17, his atheism had been quite fully formed. According to one of his biographers, “the rational case for religion was, in Lewis’s view, totally bankrupt.”But something other than reason kept nagging at Lewis, causing some part of him to long for more than what logic could provide. “He continued to find himself experiencing deep feelings of desire,” through “momentary and transient epiphanies” which left “nothing but a memory and a longing.”The most significant of these moments took place when Lewis picked up a copy of a fantasy novel called Phantastes. His biographer writes, “Everything was changed for [Lewis] as a result of reading the book. He had discovered a ‘new quality,’ a ‘bright shadow,’ which seemed to him like a voice calling him from the ends of the earth.”Lewis had no idea at the time that the book’s author, George MacDonald, was a Christian. All he knew was that this was a marvelous novel that caused him to long for something he didn’t yet have. Yet, “a seed had been planted, and it was only a matter of time before it began to germinate.”Last week, we looked at three ways in which our work matters for eternity beyond sharing the gospel and “saving souls” (as important as that is!). Today, I want to focus our attention on a fourth way, illustrated by the story above: The work you and I do today is a means of “spreading the aroma of Christ,” causing others to long for his Kingdom.When Lewis opened Phantastes, he was totally closed off intellectually to Christianity. But there was something about that book that was more true, beautiful, and powerful than anything he had ever experienced. Only years later would Lewis make the connection of the themes of that novel to the “True Myth” of Christianity. But the work of MacDonald—even though it never explicitly mentioned the name of Jesus—clearly accomplished an eternally significant purpose, causing Lewis to “catch a whiff” of what he would later find out only Christianity could provide.Today, you and I have an opportunity to create this same kind of craving for the Kingdom in our work.If you’re a personal trainer, doctor, or nurse, you are helping people live healthier lives, pointing them to the full restoration of their bodies made possible by Christ’s resurrection.If you’re an entrepreneur, you are fixing what is broken in creation by solving problems for customers, causing them to long for the restoration of all things.If you’re an artist or writer, you have a chance to tell stories that spread the aroma of Christ and what life should be and will be like upon his “triumphal procession” into the New Jerusalem.Simply spreading the aroma of Christ and his Kingdom is good and God-honoring in and of itself. But as we will see next week, this work can also be a means by which people are willing to meet our King.

Sign-up for my free 20 day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. (Revelation 21:24-26)As we saw last week, the work you and I do today matters for eternity far beyond using our positions of influence to share the gospel. But before we go any further, let me clearly state the obvious: Sharing the gospel is a good, Jesus-commanded thing.As I’ve written many times before, regardless of our vocation, we should all view ourselves as “full-time missionaries” making disciples of Jesus Christ as we go about our work. The point I want to make today is that Scripture hasn’t commanded us to only share the gospel, and by focusing so myopically on “saving souls,” we can miss Jesus’s bigger mission for his Kingdom and the bigger story for our work.So, aside from using our work to share the gospel with co-workers and customers, what does Scripture have to say about how our work honors God? Here are three answers to that question.First, our work matters because it is a means of glorifying God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 makes this clear, saying that we can do all things—even our work—for the glory of God. According to John Piper, “‘Glorifying’ means…acting in ways that reflect his greatness, that make much of God, that give evidence of the supreme greatness of all his attributes.” We worship a creative, productive, working God (see Genesis 1) and “reflect his greatness” when we work with excellence.Second, our work matters because it is a means of loving our neighbors as ourselves. The pursuit of mastery in our work is one way in which we obey this famous command of our Savior. Excellent work is good and God-honoring in and of itself. Jesus didn’t say, “Love your neighbor as yourself…so that you can share the gospel.” “Love your neighbor as yourself” was a complete sentence.Finally, our work matters because Scripture tells us that some of our work will physically last into the New Jerusalem. We see that clearly in today’s passage as well as its parallel passage in Isaiah 60. As Tim Keller, N.T. Wright, and others have made clear, some of the physical things you and I create in this life (that are made in the Spirit and in-line with the principles of our King) have a chance of being considered “the glory of the nations,” laid at the feet of Jesus on his New Earth.Those are just three ways in which Scripture makes clear that our work matters beyond using our vocations to share the gospel. Next week, I’ll add another to this list, showing how our work can cause Christians and non-Christians alike to long for the Kingdom.

Devotional 1 of 4 in the "Beyond Saving Souls" series